FOI Europa League

[Walterbear 557]

Dear Sir,

 

Please can you advise me how much of BBC Scotland budget was allocated to cover ‘away matches’ in the group stage Europa League matches involving Celtic and Rangers in football season 2018/19? For example how much money was spent on fees to subcontracted staff, hotel and travel expenses including subsistence, overtime, additional broadcasting costs for technical and operational necessities, hiring of equipment or facilities. I do not need the figure broken down by expense type but an overall total sum of money or budget allocated to those matches will suffice. 

 

[Walterbear 557]

BBC Response:

 

Thank you for your request to the BBC of 07/03/19, seeking the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature.’ The BBC is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you and will not be doing so on this occasion. Part VI of Schedule 1 to FOIA provides that information held by the BBC and the other public service broadcasters is only covered by the Act if it is held for ‘purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature”. The BBC is not required to supply information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output or information that supports and is closely associated with these creative activities.
     
Yours sincerely,
INFORMATION RIGHTS, BBC Legal

 

 

[Walterbear 557]

Appeal:

 

I contest this decision of the BBC not to release the information I requested. The information is not held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature as claimed by the BBC but is held to ensure services are provided in a cost effectivemanner as specified in the BBC charter (see below) and to ensure that the public services on offer are accessible to viewers listeners and other users. 

 

Unless we know how much money is allocated it is not possible to establish reasonable accessibility for BBC licence holders. If Rangers games for example are not covered but Celtic games are (which is the case due to the BBC boycott of Rangers) it is reasonable to assume that the obligation to service listeners, viewers and users in a cost effective and accessible manner is not being met.

 

The BBC in not disclosing the requested information are therefore confirming that either they do not have the information (therefore fail the cost effectiveness measure) or they simply wish to withhold the information because it reveals an imbalance in expenditure (therefore fails the accessibility measure). 

 

I therefore repeat my request for the information withheld by the BBC. 

 

Extract from BBC CHARTER. 

 

GENERAL OBLIGATIONS 61. Making the UK Public Services widely available

(1) The BBC must do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure that viewers, listeners and other users (as the case may be) are able to access the UK Public Services that are intended for them, or elements of their content, in a range of convenient and cost effective ways which are available or might become available in the future. These could include (for example) broadcasting, streaming or making content available on- demand, whether by terrestrial, satellite, cable or broadband networks (fixed or wireless) or via the internet.

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by Walterbear

[cooponthewing 1,139]

We await there reply.....Good work Walterbear?